Named
as one of the best films of 2002 in the Film Comment poll of 59
international film critics, To Be and To Have provides an insight
into the learning process of thirteen children, ages 4 to 10, in a one-room
schoolhouse during a seven-month period. The film is a tribute to the innocence
of childhood and to the dedication of their teacher, 55-year old George
Lopez. Director Nicolas Philibert selected Lopez' rural schoolhouse in
the Auvergne region of southeast France from a list of 300 schools. As
Philibert explained: "I wanted a school with a limited number of pupils
so that each child would be easily identifiable and become a character
in the film. I also wanted the fullest age range possible -- from kindergarten
to the final year of primary school -- to show the atmosphere and charm
of these small, eclectic communities and the very specific work required
from the teachers."
Filming almost 600 hours
of the children's daily activities with a crew of four, Philibert allows
us to re-experience the long forgotten frustrations of learning how to
trace letters, express our feelings verbally, count until we run out of
numbers, and get along with our classmates. Mr. Lopez has taught in the
same school for twenty year and has a unique ability to simply be with
and respect children for who they are and what they say. He is a model
of patience and an example of how to listen without making moral judgments
or instant evaluations. He says of the teaching profession, "It takes time
and personal involvement and the children return that again and again."
Most of the children come from families who are not well educated but the
film shows the parents struggling to do their best to solve the mysteries
of their child's homework. To Be and To Have is also filled with
humour as in a sequence when two very young students are fighting a losing
battle with a photocopier and when a student insists on using the word
"pal" instead of "friend". Much time is spent observing a pre-schooler
named Jojo with a very typical attention span. He is endearing but I would
have liked a bit more exploration of Katherine who we find out at the end
has a serious problem in communicating.
Mr. Lopez works closely
with each child, showing sensitivity in the way he handles problems as
when he asks two fighting students to imagine the effect their behaviour
has on others. Time and again he mediates disputes by helping children
to communicate with each other as in the scene where he assists two older
boys, Julien and Olivier, in understanding the reasons they got into a
fight. "You were just testing each other, but then it degenerated, no?"
he asks. The film begins in December with footage of snow falling on a
herd of cows and continues until the following Summer. By the end we have
come to know many of the students. When the teacher announces he is going
to retire in another year, the emotion on his face when the children plant
kisses on his cheek as they say goodbye for their vacation was felt throughout
the entire audience of 800 people. To Be and To Have celebrates
the dedication of teachers whose unacknowledged labours make a profound
difference in the lives of our children. A film of warmth and humanity,
it is the highest grossing French documentary of all time. Job well done,
Mr. Lopez and Mr. Phlibert.
Howard
Schumann
To
Be and To Have (Etre et Avoir)
It’s really encouraging
for documentary makers to see docs like Buena Vista Social Club
( Wim Wenders/Ry Cooder), Bowling for Columbine (Michael Moore)
and now the latest success story Etre et Avoir, by French documentarist
Nicolas Philibert, doing very well in the cinema.
For Philibert it is even
a bigger achievement, because he chooses to make a film about a simple
daily subject: a one room school-class with children from 4-10 in the Auvergne
in France, guided by their patient, even tempered and humane teacher Georges
Lopez. Philibert follows the struggles and joys of children who are
learning to read, wrestling with maths and trying to deal with each other.
We follow the pupils like the cheeky boy Jojo, the over sensitive Olivier,
whose father endured a serious operation and a quietly determined
Asian girl. The daily life of the children and the kind teacher are intercut
with exquisite shots of Auvergne all through the seasons. This gives the
film not only a time frame, but also a poetic universality, a beautiful
rhythm and breathing space.
Etre et Avoir won
a couple of Awards, among them the Best European Documentary Film Award
and was a big hit in France. In an interview in Sight and Sound, Philibert
says: “ I make a film with my subjects, not about them.” It’s brilliant
to see that gentle and subtle films are not always shouted down by over-hyped
and loud films.
Jaap
Mees
www.free-spirits-film.co.uk
